Vernessa Pollard, former associate chief counsel in the FDA's office of chief counsel, has joined Arnold & Porter's (Washington) FDA and healthcare practice in Washington as a counsel. During her tenure at the agency from 2002 to 2008, Pollard represented the FDA in a variety of major litigation matters, and advised agency clients on compliance and regulatory issues involving drugs, medical devices, dietary supplements, cosmetics, pharmacy compounding, good manufacturing practices, congressional inquiries and disclosure of records under the Freedom of Information Act. Arnold & Porter has almost 60 attorneys in its the FDA and Healthcare group practicing in the U.S. and Europe.

Patrick O'Neill, PhD, has been appointed a healthcare industry advisor with Avista Capital Partners (New York). O'Neill had a long career at Johnson & Johnson, which he joined in 1976 and from which he retired in 2006. Avista Capital Partners is a private equity firm that invests primarily in healthcare, media and energy companies, including AHC Media, publisher of Medical Device Daily.

Harry Rein has resigned as a director of CardioNet (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania). Rein is a General Partner with Foundation Medical Partners, which was an early investor in CardioNet, and had served as a director of CardioNet since January 2006. CardioNet is a wireless medical technology company with a focus on cardiac arrhythmias.